For Dove:
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
– Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784), quoted in Boswell’s Life of Johnson
About The Author
Knoxville Progressive
47, an environmental scientist, Italian-American, married, 2 sons, originally a Catholic from Philly, now a Taoist ecophilosopher in the South due to job transfer. Enjoy jazz, hockey, good food and hikes in the woods.
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Recent Posts
- Day 14: Louisiana Senator Approvingly Compares Trump to Stalin
- Day 13: Elon Musk Flexes His Muscles
- Day 12: While Elon Musk Takes Over, We Podcast With Driftglass and Blue Gal
- Day 11: Harm of Fascist Regime’s Foreign Aid Freeze Comes Into View
- Day 10: The Fascist Regime Blames a Plane Crash on Nonwhite People
Some of the gaping holes that exist in our understanding of the Earth’s atmosphere will be answered by two new NASA satellites launched on Friday. The Cloudsat and Calipso missions will study how clouds and aerosols (fine particles) form, evolve and affect our climate, the weather and air quality. Scientists say knowledge gaps in such areas severely hamper their ability to forecast future climate change.
A team of US and Canadian scientists has demonstrated the effectiveness of a vaccine in preventing the development of hemorrhagic fever in an animal model after exposure to the deadly Marburg virus. And a new type of carbohydrate vaccine candidate has been developed for leishmaniasis, a protozoan tropical disease that causes serious disfigurement and an estimated 60,000 deaths per year.
Voluntary standards for plumbing fixtures put EPA in a Catch-22 in trying to enforce the lead standards for drinking water.
Recent urban development in Los Angeles is less scattered than recent development in Boston. Miami is America’s most compact big city and Pittsburgh is most sprawling. Changing the number or size of municipal governments in a metro area has no impact on whether or not urban development is scattered, but controlling access to groundwater does. These are among the startling findings concerning urban sprawl from a University of Toronto-based team of researchers who used satellite data and aerial photography to create a grid of 8.7 billion data cells tracking the evolution of land use in the continental United States.
Be careful mixing your medications! Researchers have documented a severe case of internal hemorrhaging in a patient that drank chamomile tea and used chamomile lotion while taking anti-coagulants for a heart condition.
The biggest onshore wind farm in Europe is to be built on a vast stretch of moorland near Glasgow and will open by the end of the decade; it will be able to power 280,000 homes.
Astronomers have measured the thickness of the crust of a neutron star for the first time. The technique, which involves studying how the dense stellar corpse reverberates during a “starquake”, may one day reveal the nature of the exotic matter thought to lie at the star’s core.
I’ll let Elliott Spitzer do my climate change ranting for me today: In the latest legal broadside against the Bush administration’s policy on global warming, 10 states sued the EPA on Thursday for refusing to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. In another piece of good news on greenhouse gas emissions, Europeans open the world’s largest plant to test carbon sequestration at a power station. The world’s largest pilot plant designed to test new technology for capturing and storing CO2 was opened in March 2006 at the Elsam power station near Esbjerg, Denmark. Funded from the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme for Research, the 8.5 million Euro facility is the first to test innovative carbon sequestration technologies at a fully operational coal-fired power station. CO2 emitted by the power station will be captured and then stored underground so that the gas will not contribute to global warming.
Hundreds of starfish have been found dead on a beach on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, and a scientist says a nonnative parasite is likely to blame. Bruce Leighton, a marine parasite expert at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, noted Wednesday that the die-off coincided with the peak of the starfish reproductive cycle, when the creatures are most vulnerable to Orchitophrya stellarum, a protozoan that feeds on sea stars’ sperm. He said the parasite is believed responsible for wiping out purple sea stars in North Vancouver’s Indian Arm and eliminating much of the male population of the species in other areas of British Columbia, altering the balance of species.
“Voluntary standards”, aka “the stuff that gets passed because it sounds good, but won’t piss off corporate lobbyists because corporations can and will ignore it.”
When you hear “voluntary standards”, think “bullshit”. If it’s voluntary, it’s not a standard.
Link
I want a copy of that document.
SECRETARY-GENERAL LAUNCHES `PRINCIPLES FOR RESPONSIBLE INVESTMENT’
Here you go.
Iraq war set to be more expensive than Vietnam
Darfur food rations cut in half
Nick and George Clooney urge Darfur aid
if the US is still withholding its dues from UN Membership? Bolton anyone?
Google “US debt to the UN”
Here’s a hit:
US Debt to the UN:
Monthly Totals
Reprehensible!
Seems like a perfect opportunity to start repairing our reputation throughout the world. I say take that measley $746 mill from our Defense budget and feed these people! Rummy and his boys would never miss it, they misplace way more than that yearly 😉
Friuday – It’s like Friday, only longer.
Better go get more coffee.
If y’all haven’t checked out Alternet’s Stephen Pizzo’s article on campaign finance reform, do so.
His idea is to basically have all media list the top five campaign contributers when referring to any politician. It’s a bit cumbersome, so I figure we could just use the stock market abbreviations for them instead. Or, just limit to three. Nevertheless, I sure would like to know who our pols are really speaking for.
Progress on ethanol.
Link
Today is Worker Memorial Day
Each year, those of us in the AFL-CIO union movement, together with our allies across the country, set aside a day when we remember all the workers who have died on the job–some 5,764 in the United States in 2004. Workers Memorial Day, which began in 1989, marks April 28, 1970, when the Occupational Safety and Health Act went into effect. via aflcio
“As traumatized as Americans were by the deaths of these men, the revelations of the Bush administration’s weak enforcement efforts, low fines and withdrawal of proposed regulations that could have saved the lives of the Sago and Alma miners have prompted citizens, labor advocates and politicians to take a serious look at this nation’s waning commitment to ensuring safe workplaces.” via confinedspace
Living With War is available!
What could be finer? (not much).
Enjoy.
A very interesting flash video by Ernest Cline: Dance, Monkeys, Dance.
Enjoy
Peace
.
THE HAGUE (NIS) April 29 — Iran tried last year to secretly obtain expertise in the Netherlands on weapons of mass destruction. The secret service AIVD has observed “certain activity” in this area, disclosed AIVD chief S. van Hulst today.
Van Hulst was presenting the AIVD annual report. He said Iran was one of a number of countries of concern, that are looking for knowledge and technology on weapons of mass destruction. The annual report also expresses concern regarding the intentions of risk countries including Libya, North Korea, Pakistan and Syria. The AIVD believes Pakistan and North Korea want to have long-range ballistic missiles.
Espionage seems to be increasing and also involves countries such as China and Russia. Foreign powers try to influence civil servants and staff of multinationals and station students at Dutch universities to gather intelligence, said Van Hulst. The AIVD has issued a brochure warning the government and private sector on possible espionage within their organisation.
Report: Violent Jihad in the Netherlands
● Nuclear Spy AQ Khan – CIA/America Refused Arrest in 1975 & 1985
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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